Evaluating payment systems requires accessing highly secure and regulated payment data and systems, and is not known to test actual transactional volumes. For example, payment system testing relies on historical data, thus, it is difficult to perform quality and performance testing of proposed payment systems based on actual transactional volumes and projected data. Consequently, identifying potential faults in a payments system and determining a root cause of payment system failures in challenging. These and other shortcomings are addressed by the methods and systems described herein.